Steve Bannon steps down from Breitbart News

Mr Bannon this week attempted to row back from remarks in which he questioned the US president’s mental health and called a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin linked lawyer “treasonous.” Mr Bannon said he regretted making the comments, and reasserted his respect for the US president and his eldest son.

The comments reportedly infuriated Ms Mercer, a Trump supporter, and others on the board of Breitbart.

Mr Bannon, who left the White House in August, is also quoted in the book as saying that the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election — and possible collusion by the Trump campaign — will focus on money laundering.

Mr Trump has been enraged by the betrayal by Mr Bannon — a man who engineered the New York real estate mogul’s link to the nationalist right and helped create a pro-Trump media ecosystem. …

But Mr Bannon was marginalised in the months before his ouster over Mr Trump’s concerns that the top aide was being viewed as an Oval Office puppeteer.

Mr Trump had stayed in touch with the Breitbart head after he left the White House in August, including consulting him on last month’s Alabama Senate race. But since his quotes in the Wolff book emerged, the White House began sending Republicans and conservative figures a clear message: Trump or Bannon. …

Despite the setback, Mr Bannon has told confidants that he believes Mr Trump, after a cooling-off period, will again seek his counsel, noting that the president often maintains contact with aides he has fired. But some Trump allies hope the president will permanently cut off his former strategist, and the fate of Mr Bannon’s insurgency against the Republican establishment is now in doubt.